The Tamil Nadu government on May 9 announced the names of six nodal officers to the Unified Command Centre (UCC) that will function as the COVID-19 War Room.
Darez Ahamed, Executive Director, Guidance, will head the UCC and will be in charge of overall co-ordination of the command centre.
K. Nanthakumar, Secretary, TNPSC, will be the nodal officer for State oxygen monitoring and emergency response. Mr. Nanthakumar will co-ordinate with the Tamil Nadu Medical Supplies Corporation on all issues related to liquid medical oxygen and liaise with private hospitals for their oxygen requirements.
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Dr. S. Uma, Additional Collector (development), will be the nodal officer for bed management in both government and private hospitals.
Dr. S. Vineet, Joint Managing Director, TANGEDCO, will be the nodal officer for field inspection of all empanelled and non-empanelled private medical college hospitals in and around Chennai. He will be assisted by R. Ishwarya, Assistant Collector, Vellore, and Anamika Ramesh, Collector, Tiruvallur. The field inspection team will also coordinate with the activities of the public health officers who have been placed in the field support team in Greater Chennai Corporation.
K.P. Karthikeyan, Executive Director, TIDCO, will be the nodal officer for major Government Medical Colleges (dedicate COVID-19 hospitals) and other dedicated COVID-19 hospitals in and around Chennai.
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R. Alagumeena, General Manager, TANFINET, will be the nodal officer for maintaining quality and responsiveness of the War Room.
Mr. Ahamed has been authorised by the government to depute officers from line departments in Health and Family Welfare for carrying out various tasks entrusted to the War Room.
IAS trainees of 2020 batch will also be part of the field inspection team under the nodal officers and will be deputed on a rotation basis from the districts.